I challenge you to think of a present for my extremely tricky husband

[Cinnamonandcoal]

It's his 40th. I find him almost impossible to buy for. Please help if you can! He is lovely and deserves something great.

But...
He doesn't drink alcohol
Or tea, or coffee
He's not into watching or playing sports
Not art, I'm an artist and we have many paintings of the kids by me
He's not into fancy clothes, he wears jeans and t-shirts and doesn't react well to people trying to upgrade his look (as he sees it!)
He has a car and a bike but isn't into fancy car stuff or bikes stuff. He's not really into status symbols of any type.
I've done photobooks before
Considered a weekend away but a spa hotel or similar would be more for me than for him.

He is into:
Gaming, sci fi, LARP, board games
Camping
Tools and gadgets
History, particularly historical clothing, weaponry and stuff
Cooking and food
Books, audiobooks and podcasts
Possibly something garden related, but our garden is absolutely tiny.

Budget flexible, we share accounts so while I can afford something expensive it's more about it being the right thing than an extravagant thing.

Camping & historical vibes... at Warwick Castle (and I'm sure many other castles) they do glamping pods... how about weekend away for something like that?

Or a cookery lesson at somewhere fancy where you also get to eat - there are lots of packages for that sort of thing? Lesson / dinner / accommodation.

Or dinner & overnight at somewhere he's always wanted to try? Chef he admires?

How about an Air guitar?

Camping weekend, or upgrade to a pod/caravan.

Backyard pizza oven?

Special tools like beautiful Japanese plane or chisels? This sort of thing: www.japanesetools.com.au/collections/smoothing-planes

Ticket to a Viking festival
Archery course

Ohhhh I saw a food thing... here
https://www.experiencenomadic.com

How about something like an axe making weekend? Links his interest in weaponry plus camping , tools and gadgets

Retro arcade machine?

Excellent air guitar suggestion

@TheHomeEdit great idea. I was going to say search for wild camping experience weekends near you. Lots offer survival skills and natural craftsmanship

Trip to Edinburgh, fancy restaurant & Edinburgh Castle (as well as all the Royal Mile stuff) for the history.

You don't say where you are, but I'd look at some nearby castles/stately homes to see if they do any "experience" type gifts (like feed the animals at a zoo but clean the tapestries or something).

Annual steam membership if he plays PC games.

Vouchers for nearest fancy bookshop (eg Mr B's emporium of reading delights in Bath).

Private lesson or two with this guy www.londonlongsword.com/

Really good knives
Inflatable tent
Ivey Tek cool box for camping
Cookery school
Foraging workshop
Hot air balloon trip
Flying lesson
Glamping weekend close to historic site
Royal Armouries weekend
Jetboil stove for camping (best gadget ever)
Cadac Safari Chef (or Big Egg BBQ)

Loads if places do cooking course or knife skills ( which could be good if he is into cooking but would prefer his own recipes), if he likes food a nice restaurant? Find somewhere with a good market/food festival? I think one of the chefs runs a food festival each year…

Weekend cookery course?

Allotment

A hamper of cheese
Cook book
A really good kitchen knife

Axe throwing like archery but with axes

The history interests - an antique? Lots of militaria and costumes available. You can also rent historic buildings for short breaks. There are a number of organisations that rent - e.g. Landmark. Does sound like the ideal would be camping at a LARP with a piece of relevant militaria/ costume.

Wow 15min and I suddenly have hope I'll find something - thank you!

Buying people stuff for their hobbies is so tricky. I've been given those adult colouring books before - a nice thought but I paint big abstract oils so didn't work for me!

Falconry experience?

Hammock or some kind of garden chair?
Camping lantern/radio (on my wish list!)
Magnetic wrist glove thing that holds all your screws and bolts etc while DIYing - I love mine
Camping cookbook

We bought DH a really decent BBQ for his 40th. I had a greenhouse!

Get him something from ravensforge? They do safe reproductions of medieval (and other era) weaponry.

"What did you get for your 40th?"
"A Longsword/Battleaxe/Morningstar"

It'd go down well with the gamers and re enactors I know.

I like the sound of a cookery course or knife skills (added long term benefit to me!), the nomadic feast thing, some kind of antique weapon if I can find one that's legit, magnetic glove tool holder, longsword lessons although he's pretty good at swordfighting already.

Already has steam, hammock, camping stove, good kitchen knife.

Every birthday and Christmas this is a problem so I'll be saving these up for the years ahead 🙂